


Waking up

by sqbr



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe, Crossover, Fanfiction, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-04-19
Updated: 2010-04-19
Packaged: 2017-10-09 01:00:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/81307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sqbr/pseuds/sqbr
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A crossover AU where Faith stayed in her coma from Season 3 of Buffy and became the body Ruby used in Season 4 of Supernatural. This premise has inherent issues around consent but I don't think enough to require a warning. Also, there's some swearing.</p><p>I partly used this fic to vent some of the issues I was having with the show, it's not my usual light humourous style!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Waking up

Faith dreamed.

She dreamed of knives, and of death. She dreamed of heaven and hell. She dreamed of soldiers and gods, illusions and prophesies. But mostly she dreamed of Buffy.

And then she woke up.

She was in a small cramped bed that stank of something gross. Curled over as far as possible onto the other side of the bed was a guy. From what little she could make out in the low light he was kind of hot. Ok, so, this wasn't so weird. She'd woken up in a strange bed with some unknown guy heaps of times.

But a little voice in the back of her head was telling her that actually, this was _seriously_ weird. She thought back to the last thing she could remember, but it was all mixed up in some really vivid dreams. There had been Angel, and Buffy, and the knife...wait, hadn't she been _stabbed_?

Faith pulled up her top and looked at her stomach. It was unlined and perfect.

Well, not perfect, it stuck out a little more than she remembered. Her boobs were looking a little..squishier too. And, wait, was her hair shorter? What the hell?

She looked around the house for a mirror. She was struck by how dingy it was: crappy hotel rooms were one thing, but this was verging on hobo territory, there was actually some sort of plant growing through the boards across the windows. Had she had sex with a hobo? Jesus. The area around the bed was littered with empty bottles of alcohol which might explain the lapse of judgment not to mention the hole in her memory, and there was a dusty table covered in pizza boxes and guns. Interesting.

She eventually found a flashlight and the bathroom and examined herself in the mirror. It was hard to make out through the grime but there was definitely something off about her body, not to mention her hair. She felt different too, her muscle tone was shot and she felt weak and unsteady on her feet. Had she lost time somehow? Been cursed or something? God, what if she was going through a transformation into a demon or whatever? Mayor Wilkins might like the idea of being a giant snake and good for him but she liked her body the way it was. Had been.

"Admiring the body you stole?"

The guy had come up behind her, and was looking at her reflection with a mixture of desire and contempt. Desire was ok, contempt not so much. Then the meaning of his words sunk in. She turned around and slammed him against the wall.

"_Stole_, huh? Who's stealing bodies then, pretty boy? Because this sure as hell isn't mine."

"Ruby, what the hell?" he sputtered, before breaking free.

"My name ain't Ruby," said Faith taking up a fighting stance and preparing to pin him again. She couldn't believe he'd gotten free, she was definitely off her game.

"Oh God," he said, backing away. "I..I am so sorry. She _promised_, she said you were…that you were dead, that you weren't using your body any more. Look, I don't know how to explain it so you'll believe me, but you have to believe I didn't know, and I…God." He stared at her horrified.

"Wait, so you were ok with having sex with me because you thought I was _dead_? And I was being possessed by like a demon or something? What are you, some devil worshipping necrophiliac?"

She pinned him against the wall again, and this time he didn't struggle, he just looked at her with big puppy dog eyes and pity. Ew, that was worse than contempt.

"What? No! I just...I don't even know what I was thinking. And seriously, I am really, _really_ sorry. There's this demon, Ruby, and she's actually good. At least, I thought she was good. And she said you were some coma patient who'd died, and showed me the death certificate and everything. I know it's weird and wrong that we...used your body like that but I didn't think it was hurting anyone."

She thought about killing him. She was pretty sure she could take him, but not without a fight, and there was just too much weird about this situation to go killing her one source of information. At least for now.

"Did you say a coma patient?"

He gestured towards the table. Deciding he didn't seem to be a threat she let him go and put on some more clothes before taking a look. And there, under some half dried leaves, was a death certificate with her name on it. Faith Lehane, born 27th April 1980, died 13th July 2008.

Wait, _two thousand and eight_?

Well, fuck. That explained the squishiness. But how had she ended up in a coma? Had she been stabbed after all? Or was this all some elaborate trick?

"And I suppose this Ruby had nothing to do with my coma? She just happened to choose the Slayer out of all the possible stiffs she could have chosen? And I'm expected to believe nine years have passed just like that?"

"Whoa, nine years? And what the hell is a Slayer? Who _are_ you?"

She held up the death certificate. "Hey, you know who I am, says it right here. Who the hell are _you_?"

For someone who fucked demons in the bodies of dead people this Sam Winchester was irritatingly similar to the bunch of goody two shoe white hats she'd left behind in Sunnydale. Then again, what with the whole Buffy and Angel thing maybe necrophiliac demon fucking went with the territory. Apparently he and this Ruby chick were working together to exorcise demons from people, which seemed like a funny hobby for the sort of demon that possesses people to have.

This gave Faith a bit of a dilemma. If she told Sam the truth he'd probably get all self righteous and stop helping her and chances are she'd have to kill him (so, not all bad). But if she did the whole Good Slayer routine he might check up on her details and hear who knows what from the actual Good Slayer (assuming she hadn't died or turned to the dark side herself in the past ten years. And wow, wasn't that an interesting thought)

So she went for a compromise. "I'm kind of like a freelance demon hunter," she said.

"You're a hunter too?" said Sam enthusiastically, "Oh wow, yeah, that is a pretty huge coincidence isn't it?"

"Yeah, it's weird all right." How had this guy been hunting demons this long and not heard of the Slayer? Maybe Buffy _had_ died, and since Faith was still alive no new Slayer had been called to replace her. Actually that made sense. To her surprise Faith found herself feeling kind of sad about it. She decided that this was because she hadn't had a chance to see the deed happen in person.

These thoughts were interrupted by someone knocking on the door. Sam grabbed a rifle off the table and gestured for Faith to stay behind him. Amused (did he forget who had pinned who to the wall like five minutes ago?) she followed behind. Could this be the mysterious Ruby, with some shiny new corpse to play with? How exciting.

Sam jerked open the door to reveal a rather beat up looking middle aged woman.

"Sam." she said "I _swear_ she was dead." She looked at Faith, more puppy dog eyes. "I don't know how you survived but I'm genuinely..." She stopped and stared. "Wait, what the hell? Are you a _Slayer_?  


* * *

  
"This is impossible," said Ruby "Slayers can't be possessed. We shouldn't even be able to talk."

"Really? Because I've talked to demons heaps of times. Usually to get information out of them before I kill them." Faith smiled sunnily.

"Monster type demons sure. But you're a human mixed with that type of demon while I'm a human who was corrupted into the other sort of demon by Lucifer, it's a whole different cosmology. We're incompatible, it's like...Mac and PC."

"She's a what?"

Sam was staring at her like she'd grown horns. Faith recognised that look. She'd gotten it from Buffy, all "I'm really sorry about this but you're a being of pure evil and I have to kill you." Fantastic.

"Hey, no need to freak out. You're both humans who've been given powers by being mixed with demons, just different types and for different reasons."

Ruby reached out her hand to touch her but Faith grabbed it before she could get too close.

"Come any closer and I'll snap your wrist."

"Look, something is clearly wrong with you. I don't know a lot about Slayers, but you should be buzzing with power and I can barely sense a hum. When I possessed you there was _nothing_."

"I thought you said you were a demon _hunter_."

Faith didn't take her eyes off Ruby, who was not entirely managing to conceal the calculating look in her eyes. "Yep, I'm the Chosen One. She alone who will stand against the blah blah blah. Nobody told me it involved demon powers but to be honest I'm not surprised. Whole thing's run by a bunch of creepy English dudes, they never tell you anything except who to kill and what crazy ass orders to follow. I got kind of sick of it and tried to think for myself and ended up stabbed for my trouble."

Faith sighed inwardly. Her original "Interrogate and maybe torture Sam to find out what she needed to know and then kill him" plan was not looking so good. Sam she could take on by herself, but Ruby was an unknown quantity. Even just from holding her arm Faith could tell she was incredibly strong, and she didn't seem as stupid as most of the demons she'd met. She might have Sam fooled with this helpful good guy crap but she was obviously up to something and since Faith didn't want to be her ally she wasn't sure she wanted to hang about long enough to become her enemy.

Also, she wasn't sure she had the heart for it. Ever since she'd woken up it was like her _drive_ was missing. She was still incredibly pissed at Sam and Ruby, but the idea of killing them just made her feel depressed and grossed out rather than excited. She wondered if it was this incompatible energy thing, she certainly got a really _weird_ vibe off them, like she wasn't going to be comfortable until there was at least a hundred miles between her and them.

"You know what?" she said, letting go of Ruby, "Screw this. You guys can go on with your little demon sex and death party, but I don't want anything to do with it or you. Give me quick rundown of anything major that's changed in this wonderful future world of yours and I'll get out of your hair."

"Anything major? Since 1999?"

"Yeah, you know. Alien invasion, nuclear war, demonic apocalypse. Crap like that."

"Oh...then. Nothing like that, I guess. We're trying to _prevent_ a demonic apocalypse, but...I mean, there's been some wars and...stuff. Economy is screwed. The internet's gotten kind of...big. Uh..."

Faith's heart fell. It didn't sound like Mayor Wilkin's plan had succeeded after all. She was willing to bet Buffy had something to do with that.

"We can't just let you go. I mean, obviously we're going to _let you go_ but can't we help you out? Not that I've got much to offer, but I mean, we _owe_ you. I feel really creeped out about this whole thing. At least let me give you some money, help you get in contact with your friends and family."

Faith snorted. She had some people she wanted to look up, but she was pretty sure they wouldn't be glad to see her and they sure as hell weren't her family.

And so she found herself in a hotel, with a stolen credit card in her pocket, a stolen cellphone recharging by the powerpoint and the keys to a stolen car on the table. It struck her that if she had met Sam and Ruby under different circumstances she might have taken a liking to their more morally grey approach to demon hunting. Then she remembered the way Sam had expected her to join him in his little "Oh no I have amazing superhuman powers from demon blood, what a terrible burden" pity party. Maybe not.

She went out and bought herself some supplies, snacks and new clothes and a shiny new knife. Looking at the prices made her really feel _old_, she felt like ranting to the cashier about how back in her day you could get twice as much stuff for that price. It was funny, he looked about her age, the age she should _feel_, but he also looked really young. Faith wondered what exactly had been going on in her head for those nine years.

When she got back to the hotel she stripped off her clothes, _Ruby's_ clothes, and threw them into the trash. She stood for a long time in the shower, but eventually gave up waiting for it to make her feel any cleaner and went to put on her shiny new future clothes (pretty much the same as her olden days clothes, except the pants sat a little lower) She lay on the bed trying to take in her situation. But, well, introspection wasn't really her strong point. She decided to put this whole demon possession thing behind her, locking it down in the "Do not think about this" box along with most of the rest of her life that hadn't been spent in a coma.

**Author's Note:**

> It was only after I'd finished the fic that I realised how much it drew on my experience of (a)Waking up from a coma (I was out for a day, but it was still pretty surreal) and (b)wondering what the hell happened to my twenties.


End file.
